all of this can be broken

[raven]

I spent Easter weekend meeting a great deal of shimgray's relatives, and it was rather tiring, but on the whole, not bad; if anyone forgot my name their minds wandered charmingly through the Western Isles. For reference: I have no objection to being called Islay or Skye, but draw the line at Rum, Muck and Eigg.

I am back in Liverpool for the time being, and today my to-do list says "sort life out". (Srsly. One day I shall consider myself a grown-up - it'll be the day I stop making to-do lists that say that.)

Here are the songs of the moment:

Laura Marling - Alpha Shallows
and the grey in the city is too much to bear

Laura Marling - Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
winter will leave us / goodbye, old England, until next time there's snow

Laura Marling - Hope In The Air
there's hope in the air / there's hope in the water

The Corries - the Mingulay Boat Song
(Look, I spent a lot of time this month being seasick between remote islands.)

Death Cab For Cutie - Meet Me On The Equinox
(I tried SO HARD not to love this song, and I still do. In my defence I succeeded in not downloading the New Moon soundtrack. People who are Death Cab fans, tell me which of their other songs I should be listening to.)

And here are some Amy-Pond-is-awesome fic recs:

and swallow fireflies, by paperclipbitch.
Amy, Rory, and the Doctor, in seventeen parts. This is very, very nice, and full of good lines and nice characterisation, and a lovely ending. I am actually ridiculously impressed by it, to be honest. [hat-tip to forthwritten for this one]

every story has a start by such_heights.
Amy, the Doctor, and Sarah Jane. Lovely.

(My own effort was last night: let it always be known that I was who I am, which is short and maybe gen and maybe not.)

(Actually, can I go off on a tangent for a moment? More and more, I'm starting to dislike how fic is always classified as gen, het, slash, or het&slash if you're lucky. I am a fairly versatile writer - not as much as some - in that I've written love stories and dramatic angstfests and slice-of-life snippets and silly comedies and overdone farces and wistful ponderings and plot-heavy adventure flicks. I like writing, I like trying new things, it's inevitable.

But I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've sat down and thought, yes, I am writing a story about a relationship. This is one. This is another. I have no problem as classifying the first one as a het & slash story, and the second as slash. But, I don't know, what about all the times I wrote a fic about Sirius being afraid of growing up, and one about Martha trying to understand the Doctor, and Geoffrey finding his peace, and because it makes sense for all those characters' relationships to be part of their lives, they're dealt with as part of the fabric of it all in the stories - but that's not what the story was about, and characterising them as het or slash just distorts them, rather than having any meaning.

It makes me wonder, also, how many great stories I scroll by because I read "het" or "slash" and think, eh, don't feel like a relationship story, and miss the point without clicking.

Okay, I'm done.)

Now I'm doing some work and not looking at pictures of Karen Gillan on the internet.

Comments

[sophiahagia.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what Amy looks like, but she can talk at me all day and I would not complain. ;) Thanks for the recs; I will read them when I'm not in class where I should be paying attention.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Proverbially, I would listen to her reading the telephone directory. :P You're very welcome.

[minttown1.livejournal.com]

"Bixby Canyon Bridge" and "Passenger Seat" are two of the better Death Cab song, imo. I also love "What Sarah Said," but it's kind of heavy.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

thanks, honey. :)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I also dislike the classifications, in part because they often seem to be about genre even more than they are about the gender of people involved or the themes explored. I write plenty of stories about men (and occasionally women) being in love with one another, but I don't consider myself a slasher and there are a lot of reasons why I don't get on with the term.

A story's label doesn't tell you whether it follows slash tropes, or is about being queer, or is a love story, or simply involves two people with the same gender identity having sex. It's a blunt instrument, really.

(And I think I'll end up tagging more of my AO3 stories with "multi," because honestly, how often do you really have a situation where everyone--in a story with more than two people--has the same orientation?)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Mmm, me too. I really hoped we'd left "slasher" behind with the nineties, but it does come up again and again.

Part of my problem is I like gen. Always have done. For one thing, I have a very straightforward romantic life, myself! There's only so much I have to say about relationships, and as you say, the terms are such a blunt instrument in terms of what I actually write.

[speccygeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

New Moon was a terrible, horrible, no good very bad movie, but I did love almost every song on the soundtrack.

I'm not in my usual position re: pimping Death Cab given half a chance, but let me see what I can find that's already in my Mediafire...

The Sound of Settling (http://www.mediafire.com/?nynnf2ke3mr)
Passenger Seat (http://www.mediafire.com/?ztynnymwnj1)
Styrofoam Plates (http://www.mediafire.com/?zztiyh3jxww)
Brothers on a Hotel Bed (http://www.mediafire.com/?cm2gn3jtygu)
A Lack of Color (http://www.mediafire.com/?zx3grunnomd)

Oh... wait! I'm not sure exactly what's in this zip, but it's a lot of DCFC, and probably a couple that are up there individually. Maybe download this first? Death Cab zip (http://www.mediafire.com/?0zgxh3vltdi)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You are a STAR. Thanks so much!

[nerves-patterns.livejournal.com]

Death Cab! I recommend "Crooked Teeth," "Champagne from a Paper Cup," "Expo '86," "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," as well as everything else rec'd here... and Ben Gibbard's work with other artists, like his song with Jay Farrar ("These Roads Don't Move") and the indiesplosion "Handle With Care" with Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins and Conor Oberst.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! I shall come back to this post, I know. :)

[lilka.livejournal.com]

Your favourite songs list has reminded me that I meant to drop you this link ages ago: 'Sleeping with Ghosts', Star Trek XI, Kirk/Spock. (http://butterfly.dreamwidth.org/1257214.html) Hope you're enjoying Liverpool :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

So, my heart just exploded into tiny pieces. Thought you should know.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

DCFC! I adore the following songs:

Brothers on a Hotel Bed
Marching Bands of Manhattan
Lightness
Title and Registration
Transatlanticism
I Will Follow You into the Dark

And others besides, but it looks like you've got more than enough to be going on with!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have "Transatlanticism", which I love. I appreciate the recs!

[lauds.livejournal.com]

(As this is a public post I might come back to delete this later if that's okay, don't want to share albums with eeeeveryone.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I can screen it, if you would prefer?

[lauds.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's a great idea! Thank you!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you! I am looking forward to hearing it.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

today my to-do list says "sort life out". (Srsly. One day I shall consider myself a grown-up - it'll be the day I stop making to-do lists that say that.)

I've been conducting an informal poll of my thirty-something friends on AIM. By your standards, I know no grown-ups. :P

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ha! I am so glad to hear it.

[tau_sigma]

I need to come back to this later, and download music, and read fic. Unfortunately right now I should probably get dressed for my interview, omg. I think you make a very good point about fic classification.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* It'll still be here when you get back. Best of luck, dear! I hope it's going well.

[tau_sigma]

...aaaand I finally remembered to come back.

I can rec you 'What Sarah Said', which is about the only Death Cab I have; it is kind of horrendously sad though:

I'm thinking of what Sarah said:
Love is watching someone die.

...have yet to read fics, still, and realised I somehow had missed your fic! Which is unconscionable.

[tau_sigma]

(PS Can upload 'What Sarah Said' later, if you would like; I'm not sure if someone else has already done so though.)

[lalumena.livejournal.com]

Just happened to see this entry after reading your recent lovely Amy/Rory/Doctor fic, and wanted to say thanks for the paperclipbitch rec! Only about halfway through, but really enjoying it so far.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! It's great, isn't it? And written so fast!

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Recs and music, but I'm so far behind on LJ. I'll have to come back later.

I have a panel idea for Connotations about fic categorisation (having not been to a slash con in some years, I find that I'm tempted by the hotel and the people even if I don't write much slash or fanfic at all these days).

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting topic; I'd love to hear panel discussion on it, so I do endorse this plan. :)

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

Was googling Karen Gillan (um, as you do) and thought I'd share a couple of my favourites:





I want that dress.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*happy happy face*